ZebraFord

Hey all. Been a part of the forum here for a few years but I'm just now getting around to my build thread. The truck has come a long way since I bought it, and I'm getting ready to do a complete high power drivetrain build on it. Here's what I've done to it in the past few years I've owned it.

Got the truck 3 years ago with plenty of rust and 90s styling. It had a 6 inch fabtech lift and 16x10s with 35 BFG KM2s and those awful clear tail lights




Over time I did almost all maintenance possible and also fixed a lot of rust. Changed both rockers and 3 of the 4 doors.








Also did some small exterior changes such as black lightning headlights, LED recon tail lights, Line X'd the grill and lower valance, clear depo fogs, and had the windows tinted.









Next was the wheels and tires. I ended up with 20x9 XD Spy wheels wrapped in 35x12.5 Nitto Trail Grapplers










Summer of 2016 I decided I wanted to do the common "Ford Lightning Swap" where the intake and up of your N/A 5.4 motor is replaced with the Ford Lightning supercharged setup. I bought the swap with almost all parts needed, including several upgrades. Upgrades are as follows:
Ported supercharger, midplate, and upper plenum
Accufab single blade throttle body
SCT BA2400 MAF
Metco Lower Pulley Hub

ZebraFord

Over the past year, I spent time accumulating the rest of the parts needed to do the swap, as well as some extras. I knew my factory trans wasn't going to hold up much longer with high mileage and the torque of the blower, so I ended up finding a good deal on a set of axles and a trans.
9.75 rear axle with T/A performance rear girdle, detroit truetrac, and 4.10 gears
8.8 front diff with 4.10 gears and detroit truetrac
Transmission is a fully built 4r70w with fully forged/ billet hard parts, high energy clutches, B&M deep sump pan, and a Circle D billet triple disc converter with a 2400-2600 stall speed.

ZebraFord

After consideration, I didn't want to run big power on my worn out stock block because that's a recipe for disaster. Ended up finding a great deal on a built motor and jumped on it. Here's the details

5.4 block bored 0.030 over
JE 9.5:1 CR pistons
Scat H Beam rods
Factory forged 8 bolt crank
CNC ported heads
Trick Flow Valve Covers
ARP Hardware and Felpro Gaskets

Jbrew

Wow , another cool build goin, so do you and 2thousand5.4 have some sort silent competition going on ? Both are sweet.

Looks like your starting off solid, covering as many bases as you can. A fresh built block even. What kind of power you think, 440 ? More like 460 I expect.

This will be another fun one to watch develop.

Your going to have a suffer a break in period...can yuh do it?

akdoggie

Nice looking engine on that trailer. Good thing you have room in your garage lol. Good luck with the build.

jprevat

iTrader: (1)

You are definitely starting with quality components. I can't wait to see what you make.

ZebraFord

I talk to him every day. Our builds are pretty similar, only advantage I have on him at the moment is that I have my blower ported. He’s got Trick flow heads, I’ve got CNC’d. At the crank I should be about 550. At the tires maybe 450ish.
Funny thing is I don’t have room in my garage. I don’t even have a garage at the moment. Family is moving and we’re in a rental house. Everything is in a storage unit and I’m renting someone’s garage for the winter to do everything.

Thanks. Me neither! I’m getting custom cams ground for better low end torque, so it should really shine there. Rear tires aren’t gonna last long lol

jprevat

iTrader: (1)

Lol may have to switch to some ats for better road grip.

ZebraFord

That’s what I’m thinking too. I love my M/Ts but I know I’ll just be breaking them loose constantly. I’ve thought of taking the lift off and going to a 33 inch A/T but I love my 35s too much. Once these wear out I’ll go to either the A/T or the new hybrid R/T

jprevat

iTrader: (1)

I really like my ats but i would look hard at the rts. Keep the lift and 35s though.